Monday, February 4, 2008

First off, sorry for the confusion with the blog exchange -- even Mr. Daddy got confused today when he sat down to read. He was like "Who is Boog?" I hope everyone enjoyed it, though. I thought it was fun. Thanks again, Niki, for asking me. And thanks for doing all the legwork since I was out of town.

And speaking of being out of town...what a lovely weekend we had.

On Friday morning we dropped the kids off at daycare and headed out of town. It was raining and about 34 degrees. As we drove south, the rain lessened, the clouds parted and the sun began to shine. When we arrived in Savannah it was a breezy 60-something degrees. Ahhh....heaven.

First stop, Byrd Cookie Company, the company I used to work for. It was a great place to work and a lot of the people I worked with are still there. If you ever need a gourmet food gift -- or heck, even some for yourself! -- I highly recommend their cookies. The key lime coolers are the best and kind of their claim to fame. But the pumpkin spice cookies are pretty good, too. And the chocolate mint. And the oatmeal.

At 5:30 on Saturday we went to the Lucas Theater in downtown Savannah for the keynote event of the Savannah Book Festival. The Lucas is a 1920s era theater that has been completely and gorgeously restored. John Berendt introduced Terry Kay, the keynote speaker. I know Terry Kay a little bit. My department coordinates the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame and he's on the Board . But it was fascinating to see him in front of this huge crowd. He had them eating out of his hand, hanging on every word. And it was fascinating to hear him talk about writing and the writing process. Pat Conroy actually had to trick Terry into writing his first book and he admits that he still doesn't feel like a "writer," though he has published 1o novels.

Afterwards we got to go hobnob with the elite of Savannah, as well as some of the authors. I met Mary Kay Andrews (she has also written mysteries under the name Kathy Hogan Trochek, which happens to be her real name). I also met Sonny Seiler -- though that name won't mean much to most of you, to Dawg fans he is the equivalent of royalty. He has owned all the Uga's since the 1950s and is the current owner of Uga VI, pictured below.

If you've read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Sonny was also Jim Williams' attorney, and actually played the part of the judge in the movie version. So that was pretty interesting.

BUT, he was not the MOST interesting person I met that night. That distinction belongs to a man who was standing near me for a large portion of the evening. I was fascinated by him because he looked like your stereotypical idea of a debauched, hard living author. His hair was a little mussed, his hands slightly trembly, and his beard couldn't decide if it wanted to be a beard or a five o'clock shadow. I finally asked someone who he was and that's how I came to meet Starkey Flythe. And seriously now, is that not the best name ever? A man with a name like that is just bound to be interesting, right? By trade, Starkey Flythe is a poet. But I think he spends his days as an eccentric. Mr. Daddy and I had a fascinating conversation with him on Friday night and then he remembered us when we went to his reading again on Saturday morning and chatted with us again. I think he's my new favorite person.

Interesting digression, Mr. Flythe's host for the festival was a local Judge named Louisa Abbot. Her mother, Louise Abbot, was a close friend of Flannery O'Connor. Very cool.

On Saturday we awoke early and headed down to Telfair Square. Mr. Flythe's poetry reading was our first event. I've decided that I'm a fan of poetry after all. I had sort of suffered through poetry during high school and college. I find that poetry is especially interesting if you can hear it read aloud -- you can hear the rhythm, the humor, the wordplay. It's even better when you can hear the author himself read them. If you get a chance, you should check out some of Mr. Flythe's poems.

I feel like this is running a little long....tune in tomorrow for the rest of Saturday's adventures.

13 comments:

oh that is all so cool! I've read Midnight, do you remember the part about all that stuff that lady used to do while she drove, putting on makeup and watching her soaps? hilariously terrifying. and now I have another author to put on my To Read List. I LOVE Pat Conroy--although must admit tried to read The Sunday Wife by his wife and couldn't even finish it--so I've got to try this Terry guy. Having Pat Conroy trick you into becoming a published writer...what a fantasy!